Alex Bay backs off trail plan at hospital

ALEXANDRIA BAY — The village Board of Trustees likely will "walk away" from the proposal to build its riverwalk along River Hospital's waterfront, to keep the project within budget and on schedule.

"It's not looking good, as much as I hate to say it," village Mayor Terry J. Robb said. "The hospital is pretty adamant that it's not going to be on its emergency dock and the property on top of the sea wall, and that's what it was designed for. So now we're looking at building a 400-foot dock over the edge of the water."

Building a dock along the hospital's waterfront would bump up the cost of the nearly $1.3 million project to roughly $1.5 million, and increase the village's out-of-pocket cost from $227,000 to an estimated $400,000.

Mr. Robb said several residents on the riverwalk advisory board have told village trustees to "walk away from it. We don't want to waste our money on it. It's just not worth it."

"We're not going to put that financial burden on our taxpayers." Mr. Robb said. "I hate to give back a $935,000 grant, because you don't get those. But I'm not going to put $400,000 on the taxpayers, either, to make it work. It's not the design and the atmosphere we were looking for, either."

Alexandria Bay received the federally funded grant, which is administered by the state Department of Transportation, in April 2009.

Hospital Chief Executive Officer Ben Moore III said Wednesday that he was unaware of the village's sudden change of mind and that the hospital board would be willing to meet with village trustees to discuss the matter further.

Just last month, trustees agreed unanimously to build the trail in front of the hospital's sea wall — closer to the river and away from the emergency dock, as the hospital board proposed — after hospital officials and several village residents argued that building a "riverwalk" away from the river did not make much sense.

The hospital board even proposed to seek grants and invest its own funds to rehabilitate its sea wall and build a new dock to improve its waterfront property to be included in the riverwalk.

Under the village's current trail design, which has been approved by DOT, the mile-long trail would be built in front of River Hospital, away from the water.

However, the initial plan, which was included in the village's grant application, called for a mile-long loop that would start and end at James Street and weave along Howell Avenue, River Hospital and the scuba park's waterfront, as well as Fuller, Sisson and Church streets.

The trail was redesigned in July after the hospital board refused to sign an easement allowing the village to build the trail on hospital property, arguing that granting public access to its emergency dock would be a potential safety and liability hazard for the hospital.

Mayor Robb said the village plans to hold another work session sometime the week of Nov. 15 to review the trail designs with its project engineers at Prudent Engineering, East Syracuse, and the hospital board.